1) Do your coordinators' ratings for each position affect how completely they are able to develop players, or only the rate at which they develop? That is, if I draft a stud QB prospect but my Offensive Coordinator has a "Poor" or "Fair" QB rating, will my prospect reach his full potential slowly, or not at all?

2) How much of an effect does the "Young Talent" rating have? Is it the dominant rating for players in the first few years? Just how "young" are we talking about here?

Thanks is advance for any help.


-- Jeremy

1) Do your coordinators' ratings for each position affect how completely they are able to develop players, or only the rate at which they develop? That is, if I draft a stud QB prospect but my Offensive Coordinator has a "Poor" or "Fair" QB rating, will my prospect reach his full potential slowly, or not at all?

I believe that the common thought is that they affect the rate at which they develop. Supporting evidence for this is that you may have players on your roster that develop completely, while others may never reach their potential. Therefore it is player dependent. Also, it is widely known that the biggest factor in player development is playing time. Therefore, effects on player development by coaches and/or mentors is generally much less significant. I believe SkyDog did some research on Mentors when the feature was first added, and was able to identify that Mentors did make a noticeable difference, but not nearly enough to overcome the gains that playing time would bring. I imagine the effects of coaches are similar.



2) How much of an effect does the "Young Talent" rating have? Is it the dominant rating for players in the first few years? Just how "young" are we talking about here?

Thanks is advance for any help.


-- Jeremy
Typically players develop over their first few years, depending on position. At some point they will level off, and then as they become older and near retirement, their skills will begin to decline. It is different for every player. Some develop faster, some slower. Some develop completely, others never do. Some might start to fade and then get a boost later in their career. Others might start to decline and never recover. It varies from player to player. That's what makes it challenging and fun.

If you look in the help file (search for Retirement > Determining Retirement) and there is a chart that shows the "general" progression for player development. That may give you a more specific answer to your question.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

I believe SkyDog did some research on Mentors when the feature was first added, and was able to identify that Mentors did make a noticeable difference, but not nearly enough to overcome the gains that playing time would bring.
I tested mentors once, myself. I simmed a season with 25-87 rookie QB, with max playing time and injuries off. Without a mentor, he was 44-87 at the end of the regular season. With a mentor, he was 54-87 at the end. Unfortunately, I didn't think to look at the offensive coordinator's QB rating.

The interesting thing about my test was that the QB always developed the exact same amount -- with a mentor he was always a 54 at season's end, without he was always a 44. Apparently, mentors, coordinators, and playing time have their effects, but there's no randomness to the process.


I'm still curious about the coordinators' "Young Talent" rating; I assume it modifies the other ratings across the board, but I have no idea to what extent.

I tested mentors once, myself. I simmed a season with 25-87 rookie QB, with max playing time and injuries off. Without a mentor, he was 44-87 at the end of the regular season. With a mentor, he was 54-87 at the end. Unfortunately, I didn't think to look at the offensive coordinator's QB rating.

The interesting thing about my test was that the QB always developed the exact same amount -- with a mentor he was always a 54 at season's end, without he was always a 44. Apparently, mentors, coordinators, and playing time have their effects, but there's no randomness to the process.


I'm still curious about the coordinators' "Young Talent" rating; I assume it modifies the other ratings across the board, but I have no idea to what extent.
With injuries off, he likely got the same amount of playing time each time. Therefore it isn't entirely unexpected that he would develop the same.

As for young talent, I can tell you the effects it has on a scout, but not a coach. Like I said, it is probably similar to that of a mentor.

Your comments make me wonder if the mentor simply increases the amount which a player can improve. Likewise, the skills of the coach might help determine the rate at which a player develops. Not really sure.

My guess is that position ratings and the young talent ratings are combined for an overall effect on development for young players. Under my theory a very good QB rating, but poor young talent rating probably cancel each other out, leaving your QB to advance at his normal rate. Just a theory though.

I have a theory that very good to excellent coordinators can help your players reach beyond their scouted potential, while a fair to poor coordinator will waste your top draft pick.

I can't seem to find this anywhere but, do you see the mentor adjustment if the mentor is inactive? What about inactive players? Do they see the boost?

I can't seem to find this anywhere but, do you see the mentor adjustment if the mentor is inactive? What about inactive players? Do they see the boost?
Mentors can definitely be inactive.

It doesn't appear to me that inactive players get any boost. It certainly seems like a player needs to be playing fairly regularly to see any positive effect.

To take it a step farther, I think it's been said that mentors could even be on IR and still play their role of mentor.

To take it a step farther, I think it's been said that mentors could even be on IR and still play their role of mentor.
Yeah, I definitelt agree with this. I know I'm not the only person who intentionally tries to get mentors (with poor skills) injured in the preseason in order to place them on IR.

I'm pretty confident it works like this:

mentor: just has to be on the roster, anywher (IR, inactive, active, whatver)
disciple: has to be playing in order to get any benefit

I have a theory that very good to excellent coordinators can help your players reach beyond their scouted potential, while a fair to poor coordinator will waste your top draft pick.
I agree, mostly. I've always thought the positional rating of the coach indicates how high a ratings level he can bring the player, while the Young Talent rating is how quickly he can get them there. By that i mean a coach who is rated Average at QBs and Excellent at Young, will (say) get your QB to 70 of 80 potential in three seasons, but no higher. An Excellent QB rated/average Young will get him to 85 out of 80, but it will take five years for that to happen.

In that way a Mentor makes up for a less than Excellent Young Talent rating. At least I think so.

It's always good to check out player developement beyond the overall ratings. Young players can develop their individual ratings ever week, but the overall change can take 3 weeks to be significnt enough to go from 20 to 21.

Also, my theory on mentors is that they double the development, but I don't have hard proof for that. Has anyone ever done a 'start a guy all season and reload' test? From some mutiplayer experience, I've seen that a redoing of the results can change which players are making progress that week, so it's a little bit random anyway (could be dependant on the stats, but I'm not sure about that either.)

Also, my theory on mentors is that they double the development, but I don't have hard proof for that. Has anyone ever done a 'start a guy all season and reload' test?
I did, once. See post #3.

I did, once. See post #3.D'oh! :o

I should have been clearer about that I would like to see stats for other positions as well, not just QB.

Yeah, I definitelt agree with this. I know I'm not the only person who intentionally tries to get mentors (with poor skills) injured in the preseason in order to place them on IR.

I'm pretty confident it works like this:

mentor: just has to be on the roster, anywher (IR, inactive, active, whatver)
disciple: has to be playing in order to get any benefit

I believe ct just ran his own exhaustive test that refuted these conclusions on mentors. They and the young players must be active it seems to have any effect.